AOL Bad Links and Board Problems

[Harry]

Recently, AOL users have reported a problem with reaching some pages without first being asked whether to save a file or view it.

PLEASE BE SPECIFIC - I cannot read between the lines. Describe problems to their fullest and that will help bring a fix to the bugs.

Originally Posted by Harry -- Text of email to AOL users:

I have received reports from a couple of AOL users indicating that they are
having trouble accessing the SmokStak.com web site of which you are a
member. The error indication is: "Do you want to view or save this file?"
when bringing up the site.

Actually, there is no file to save. Either the home page should come up
http://www.smokstak.com/ or the main forum page http://www.smokstak.com/forum/
without any intervention on your part. Both have an index.php main page.

I spoke with AOL technical support (ticket number 146131843) and they invite you to discuss and troubleshoot the issue with them. One recent change on our site involves the use of HTTP_REFERER to confirm that page and graphic usage is coming from our own site. Some computers may have this flag bypassed or blocked. We have also recently upgraded to PHP 4.3.10. Tech support should understand those terms.

UPDATE: January 15, 2005

Some reports continue to trickle in, but for the most part, this problem is solved. If you are still having troubles, please call AOL technical support at 888-346-3704 and refer to ticket number 146131843. I just had a conversation with them and the problem for the most part is an outdated version of Internet Explorer on the user's computer. I had always believed that AOL used their own web browser, but I learned that it is actually Internet Explorer that is doing the work. When the user updates their software, all is well again. Incidentally, the tech support person was able to access SmokStak just fine.

DON'T CHOKE YOUR WEB BROWSER!

Installing Norton Internet Security and Pop-up blockers, etc. is fine for cruising the seedier parts of the internet or aggressive commercial sites, but your favorite web sites may need information that you are blocking. For example, HTTP_REFERRER and HTTP_USERAGENT tells our bulletin board which web browser you are running and whether you are linking from one page to another on our site. These are important to the operation of this page and have absolutely nothing to do with keeping personal track of you. We also make extensive use of Javascript. You might say that turning these off is like running your engine with its choke left on and your experience here will be quite similar.

[T Hickok Mn]

Harry:
I can go anywhere on the site except.
smokstak main forum
sparks & arcs
the lighter side
When i try these sites it goes to a microsoft greeting card page, no questions asked

Thanks!! T Hickok aka junk man won

[Harry]

I reported this issue to the bulletin board company and they indicate that it is not a problem. (Washed their hands of it! Nice helpful folks.)

I installed AOL Version 9.0 Optimized on my own computer and have surfed around EnginAds and SmokStak without any problems at all. (Except that AOL is much slower than Internet Explorer on the same connection.)

Of 147 emails sent to our AOL participants, only ten have responded so far. It must have something to do with the way AOL is configured on a user's computer.

Have you tried calling AOL support? Can you bring up Internet Explorer on your AOL dial-up connection and try it that way?

Latest report in from another AOL user: No problems with AOL9.0 Optimized SE on Windows XP Pro. Might be that AOL took care of the issue.

[Fred Schultz]

I have AOL 9.0 Security Edition SE and also have the problem

[Fred Schultz]

When I click on SmokStak Main Forum to open it, it says:You are downloading this file: forumdisplay from www.smokstak.com. Would you like to open this file or save it to your computer. It doesn't directly go there like it used to.

[Harry]

I'm hearing from some AOL members who say that it's fine and others who say it isn't. I can run a test while on the phone with any user that has a second phone line open.

[Wayne Welch]

Harry, I had this problem after I downloaded XP service pack two. I had go to the internet options on the tools menu. On the security tab go to trusted sights and list the sight you want trusted.
Hope this helps,
Wayne Welch

[Don Oberholtzer]

Harry, as of today my problem is gone?I ran a complete maintenance, defrag and all.

[Harry]

I only changed one link today and that was the forwarder from the old SmokStak board. It used to point to the main forum directory here http://www.smokstak.com/forum/index.cgi and now it points directly into this board at http://www.smokstak.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5 (As you can see by the #5, each board has a linking number.)

Previous changes were made on January third because of an internet worm traveling through PhP bulletin boards.

Some AOL users have told me that this problem started last Thursday December 30th. No changes were made here at that time.

Possibly an AOL update? Was AOL 9.0 Optimized just released?

After my call to AOL support, the problem seemed to disappear.

You would get best results by coming into this site direct to http://www.smokstak.com/ where you have all links and can see what's been posted recently.

[Simon Thomson]

If you right click on the aol icon in the system tray then click on "start aol dialer" the dialer control panel appears.

Tick the "Alway display AOL Dialler tray icon" and you should now have the dialler icon in the system tray.

The only problem I have is sending emails through outlook express. The anti spam software AOL use kills just about every email I send unless I use the AOL mailroom.

Hope this helps someone.

simon.

(Edit by Harry: AOL discourages you from using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express because they want to retain control of your web activities. IE and OE are "outside" products.)

[Dick Brown]

Harry
we went through the support ticket #146131843 that you sent, with aol. every thing is working now . stak was the only problem we had. thanks for your time and trouble.
Dick Brown

[Andrew Albrecht]

Harry: When i click on Trivial Pursuits an AOL box appers that says file download. File is Forumdisplay[2].PHP from Smokstak.com it askes if you want to save the file or open it. when you try to open it it says windows need to know what program created it and windows can go online and look it up automatically or i can from a list on my computer.
either way i cant do much after that. Only happens on the Trivia board. Andy

[Andrew Albrecht]

Harry: i take that back. If i click on my favorits your page comes up. but when i click on Smokstak main form and Trival Pursuits in your forum links is when i get the file message.

[Don Oberholtzer]

In my second day no problems, looks like were back on track.
Thanks Harry

[ronm]

Harry, whatever you did seems to have worked-no problem today...Thanks, Ron.

[Fred Van Hook]

Harry, Don't know if it was you or me, but it now works. I went into my AOL system information, then clicked utilities and cleaned out my browser cache. Did you do anything to change this tonight. Before I did this I could not get on your site at all. Thought maybe you were working on it.Thanks, Fred

[Harry]

From 6PM to 7Pm eastern time, we had an unrelated outage. I'm still tracking the logs to investigate what happened.

The bulletin board company also released another update today. This was installed at 12:51PM eastern time.

Updates to system software are a continuous thing while we play cat and mouse with internet viruses and worms. Each morning around 3AM eastern, the server is automatically swept and checked for software updates. It's complex!

Anyway, we seem to be on and running at this point in time.

[Craig A]

It's interesting these problems are appearing with AOL users exclusively.
All I know is I have friends and aquaintances who use AOL........and it didn't get be known as AO-Hell for nothing........................